Our Team

Dr. Sandra Coufal brings over 30 years of experience to Toragen as a physician and serial entrepreneur working with multiple successful companies in medicine, chemistry, biotechnology, material sciences, and digital technology.

• Co-founded and managed Sibling Capital Ventures and Sibling Capital
• Co-founded Ilypsa, Inc. KIKLIN® (bixalomer) (M&A $0.5bn - 2006 & 2007)
• Co-founded Relypsa, Inc. VELTASSA® (patiromer) (NASDAQ: RLYP) and served as Board Observer on the Board of Directors (IPO - 2013, M&A $1.5bn - 2016)
• Founded Relypsa’s and Ilypsa’s Scientific Advisory Boards
• Co-founded and served as Director on the Board of Directors at Tricida, Inc. (NASDAQ: TCDA) (IPO - 2018)

Dr. Coufal served as Biomedical Advisor for the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation for 21 years where she vetted drug development projects and provided senior-level advice.

Currently, Dr. Coufal serves on the Board of Directors of BioAesthetics, Inc. and personally co-led their Series A financing round of $5mm in 2020. Additionally, Dr. Coufal serves on both the Industry Advisory Board of the Harper Cancer Research Institute at the University of Notre Dame and the New Orleans BioFund.

Dr. Coufal received her medical degree from the University of Texas, Southwestern Medical School at Dallas. Previously, Dr. Coufal was Head of the Division of Internal Medicine at the Torrey Pines site of Scripps Clinic in La Jolla, CA, where she also sat on the Board of Scripps Green Hospital as the Representative-at-Large. She also completed an internship and residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School at Dallas under Chairman Dr. Daniel Foster. She received her Bachelor of Science undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame and was designated a Notre Dame Scholar.

• Aside from Dr. Coufal's extensive career in medicine, biotechnology, and venture capital, she is an 8-year breast cancer survivor and has a personal passion to improve the treatment of cancer patients.

Dr. Neil Clendeninn has over 20 years of contributions in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. A proponent of “Slow Medicine,” Neil is a practicing physician and served as Program Director for Palliative Medicine Partners: Complex Illness Coordination, a program of Kauai Hospice in Kauai, Hawaii. He also advised a variety of biotechnology, pharmaceutical and CRO companies engaged in developing products for cancer, HIV and pain. He is the author of over 150 papers, abstracts and textbooks.

Recently, Dr. Clendeninn served as the Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Heron Therapeutics, in San Diego, CA where he established the clinical departments including Medical Affairs, Clinical Operations, Clinical Research and Biostatistics. He was instrumental in gaining the approval of SUSTOL® (granisetron) a long acting granisetron formulation for chemotherapy induced nausea and vomiting.

Previously Dr. Clendeninn served as Director of Clinical Oncology for Burroughs Wellcome CAMPATH® LEMTRADA® (alemtuzumab) NAVELBINE® (vinorelbine) in Research Triangle Park, NC. Dr. Clendeninn served as Corporate Vice President, Head of Clinical Affairs (CMO) for Agouron Pharmaceuticals INLYTA® (axitinib), in La Jolla, CA. At Agouron, Dr. Clendeninn developed the AIDS protease inhibitor VIRACEPT® (nelfinavir), which was approved in record time (36 months). He began the development of INLYTA® (axitinib). Dr. Clendeninn consulted for Algeta's/Bayer’s approval of XOFIGO® injection (radium Ra 223 dichloride, radium-223; previously called Alpharadin).

Dr. Clendeninn served as a practicing physician and held academic faculty roles at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD and practicing physician at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, CA.

Dr. Clendeninn has participated on several boards : the Board of Directors at OncoGenex Pharmaceuticals in Bothell, WA, and a Scientific Medical Advisor at the Cancer Prevention & Research Initiative of Texas (CPRIT). He was formerly on the Board of Scientific Advisors for National Cancer Institute.

Dr. Clendeninn earned his M.D. and Ph.D. degree in microbiology and pharmacology from New York University in New York, NY. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Washington, Seattle. He then trained at National Cancer Institute in Oncology and specialized in new drug development. He also holds a Master of Science in Urban Planning from the Newschool of Architecture and Design, in San Diego and an executive MBA from Kenan-Flagler Business School, Management Institute, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC.

Dr. Richard Lumpkin leads Toragen's scientific strategy with his 30+ years of experience in early-stage biotechnology companies and synthetic chemistry. 

He previously served as Senior Director at Global Blood Therapeutics (Ticker: GBT - M&A $5.4bn 2022) OXBRYTA® (voxelotor) becoming the first employee of this Third Rock Ventures founded company. 

He also played an instrumental part in spinning off Portola Pharmaceuticals (Ticker: PTLA - M&A $1.4bn 2020) BEVYXXA® (betrixaban) ANDEXXA® (coagulation factor Xa (recombinant), inactived-zhzo) from Millennium Pharmaceuticals (Ticker: MLNM M&A $8.8bn 2008). 

He held positions as a synthetic chemist and computer programmer at COR Therapeutics (Ticker: CORT M&A $2.0bn 2001) INTEGRILIN® (eptifibatide), RiboGene (Ticker: RBO M&A 1999) , Amylin (Ticker: AMLN M&A $7bn 2012) SYMLIN® (pramlintide acetate) BYETTA® (exanatide) and Corvas International, Inc (Ticker: CVAS M&A 2003).

Dr. Lumpkin received his undergraduate in Geology and a graduate degree in Biochemistry from the University of Missouri – Columbia.

Dr. Andrew Sharabi is a Board Certified Radiation Oncologist and Associate Professor at UC San Diego, and physician-scientist with a PhD in Immunology who specializes in treating Head and Neck Cancer.

• Internationally Recognized expert on Radiation and Immunotherapy
• Principle investigator of Phase I and Phase II clinical trials
• Director of Radiation Medicine Core Facility at Moores Cancer Center
• Scientific Advisor for San Diego Center for Precision Immunotherapy

Dr. Sharabi worked at Johns Hopkins University in the Immunology Research Program Under Drs. Charles Drake and Drew Pardoll who helped to discover the PD-1 checkpoint pathway.

Anita Busquets is a highly experienced startup executive who has served as President, CFO, COO, and Director of multiple companies including:

• Chief Financial Officer and Director of KI Investment Holdings
• Chief Financial and Administrative Officer of Salmedix Inc.
• Co-founded and served as the President and COO at GeneTex, Inc.
• Director of Finance and Administration for Corvas International
• President and Chief Operating Officer of NCE Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
• Chief Operating Officer at the CTRC Research Foundation, where she was instrumental in incubating and spinning out Ilex Oncology

Ms. Busquets holds an M.B.A. from Simmons College Graduate School of Management and a B.S. from Cornell University.

John Major is founder and president of MTSG, a strategic consulting and investment company. An innovator in the tech and wireless industry, Major has served in numerous leadership positions including CEO of Apacheta Corp., chairman and CEO of Novatel Wireless Inc., which he took public, and corporate EVP of Qualcomm and president of its wireless infrastructure division. Major held various executive and leadership positions at Motorola Inc. for 18 years, including SVP and CTO. Major is Chairman Emeritus of the La Jolla Institute, the premier research institute focused on the immune system. He is also Chairman Emeritus of EvoNexu, a premier incubator in southern California. Previously, he has served on the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board of the National Academy of Science, and the board of the Software Engineering Institute. He has served on the boards of directors of Orbcomm, Lattice Semiconductor, Lennox International Inc., and Littelfuse Inc. He also served on the board of Broadcom where he was chairman for a number of years. Major received a B.S. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from the University of Rochester, an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois, an M.B.A. from Northwestern University and a J.D. from Loyola University. Major is a named inventor on 13 U.S. patents. He has a honorary Doctor of Science from Westminster College, and a honorary Doctor of Engineering from the University of Illinois Chicago. 

Kimberly Manhard has served on the Board of Directors of Toragen since 2020. Ms Manhard currently serves as Executive Vice President, Drug Development for Heron Therapeutics, and served as a director of Heron from 2014 – 2015 and 2019-2023. Ms. Manhard has also served as a director of InhibRx, Inc. since 2020 and Shoreline Biosciences since 2021, which are both focused on the research and development of new treatments for cancer. 

Ms. Manhard has more than 25 years of experience in drug development, regulatory affairs and pharmaceutical operations. From 2008 to 2016, she served as the Senior Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Development Operations at Ardea Biosciences, Inc. In her role at Ardea, Ms. Manhard was instrumental in the development and regulatory approval of Zurampic® (lesinurad) in 2015. Prior to joining Ardea in 2006, she was President of her own consultancy firm, Vice President of Regulatory Affairs for Exelixis, Inc. and held multiple regulatory positions at Agouron Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a division of the Warner-Lambert Company, supporting development and commercialization of anticancer and antiviral products, including Viracept® (nelfinavir). Ms. Manhard was also previously with Bristol-Myers Squibb Company in regulatory affairs, responsible for oncology compounds, including Taxol® (paclitaxel) and infectious disease compounds, including Videx® (didanosine) and Zerit® (stavudine). She began her career in clinical research with Eli Lilly and Company and G.H. Besselaar Associates (Covance Inc.).

Ms. Manhard is a member of the board of trustees for the Fleet Science Center. She received a B.S. degree in zoology and a B.A. degree in French from the University of Florida.